United Illuminating Co., which serves 328,000 customers in the New Haven, Bridgeport and Naugatuck Valley region, wants a three-year, $141-million rate increase to pay for infrastructure upgrades and storm preparations, including cutting down trees that cause two-thirds of outages. less

United Illuminating Co., which serves 328,000 customers in the New Haven, Bridgeport and Naugatuck Valley region, wants a three-year, $141-million rate increase to pay for infrastructure upgrades and storm ... more

United Illuminating Co., which serves 328,000 customers in the New Haven, Bridgeport and Naugatuck Valley region, wants a three-year, $141-million rate increase to pay for infrastructure upgrades and storm preparations, including cutting down trees that cause two-thirds of outages. less

United Illuminating Co., which serves 328,000 customers in the New Haven, Bridgeport and Naugatuck Valley region, wants a three-year, $141-million rate increase to pay for infrastructure upgrades and storm ... more

The Orange-based ecompany, a subsidiary of Avangrid, Inc., will ask for a three-year plan to hike customer rates by $46 million in 2017, $52 million in 2018 and $43 million in 2019. Customers would pay about 5 percent more, or about $9 per month on a bill of $162.

“In recent years, we’ve made progress toward reducing the frequency and length of customers’ power outages,” said John J. Prete, president and CEO of Connecticut and Massachusetts operations at Avangrid Networks. “We’ve also taken significant measures to protect our electric system from the effects of severe weather. As we continue to modernize our infrastructure, harden our delivery system and adopt state-of-the-art technologies, this new rate plan will help us maintain the safe, reliable service that our customers have come to expect from us.”

Prete said that UI spent $92 million in 2014 and 2015 to replace older equipment and trim trees and other vegetation in attempt to reduce outages. Trees within about eight feet of power lines were responsible for about two thirds of outages.

During past storms, trees within 8 feet of overhead lines were responsible for about two-thirds of tree-related outages. If approved later this year by PURA, the new rates would kick in next January. The rate hike, which would be on the distribution portion of customer charges and the cost to operate its infrastructure, will be requested within the next 60 days. The generation portion of the average customer’s bill, reflecting the cost of energy, is set by PURA separately twice a year.